The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1887-06-18
THE PENSION OFFICE.
How Its Officers Dispose of the Million
of Communications Addressed to 1t.

Black, submitted report to the Secre-
tary of the Interior in which he stated
that the bureau had on its roll at that
time 800, 1888 pensioners costing the Gov
eminent for the year over sixty-three
million dollars. General Black also
stated that during the year closed, the
names of 40,S57 new pensioners had
been placed on the list, that 1929 had
been restored, and that %, 0S9 had been
dropped. This enumeration, so easy
| to state, stands for an amount of work
| quite inconceivable to one unacquainted
with the workings of the Pension Office.
At the time this report was sub.
mitted, the law allowed the Office to give
pensions to all soldiers wounded in the
military service of the United States
or who had incurred disability from
their service, to the widows, minoI
children and dependent relatives OF
soldiers, to all invalid sailors, and theiI
widows, minors and dependent rela-
tives, to survivors of the war of 1915
who could prove sixty days service,
and to widows of soldiers in that war.
1t will be seen that the business OF
the Pension Office in dealing with APP
plicants for pensions, becomes two-fold
to grant pensions to those the law
points out as deserving, and to with
hold them from claimants which it does
not recognize. To do this the office
must have on its records satisfactory
ayriIo,,no IN bn of invalid th
a man by such name and from such
place actually had the service claimed,
that the claimant is this man, and that
SAis injury or disability is undoubtedly
the result of his service; in the case of
'widows, etc." Gas the Pension Office
officials tersely classify widows minors
and dependent relatives), that the
service of the soldier or sailor is as
claimed, that the claimants identity is
established, and that there is no doub
about the dependence. To show briefly
some of the striking features developed
in gathering and handling this testi-
mony and in forming conclusions, is
the business of this article.
Under the law the number of persons
who may receive pensions is, of course,
very large, while the number who may
pretend to have just claims is almost
inestimable. The Pension Office has
all kinds of people on its hands, both
honest and dishonest; the old soldier,
poor and disabled, who has spent years
without filing his application and only
doing so now because his injuries are
driving him to the poor-house; dis
hearsened widows frightened at the
money and time it takes to establish
their claims and nervous at the ques-
tons; unreasonable women who know
their husbands were in the army and
indignant that the Office does not take
theirword for it; well-to-do and healthy
men determined to get still little more
to add to their incomes; and out-and-
out frauds, keen, tricky, and prepared
at every point.
; Applications and testimony must be
in writing and they come in showers.
Last year the number of pieces of mail
, received in the Office was over two mil
lion, the mail some days running as
high as eleven thousand separate
, pieces. Each communication referred
more or less directly to new case,
a pending case, or had bearing on
the status of one already established.
OF course this enormous correspond.
ence must be handled with system and
: care, and q very perfect method is EN-
ployed. Each new application for q
pension and each application for al
increase of pension goes from the mail
ing division to what is known as the
record division, where it is recorded
and if new case. given number by
l which it is to be hereafter known on it,
travels through the departments of the
office. All future correspondence re
lating to this application is at once
, jacketed with the original application
and testimony, the object being to keel
u every thing concerning each case to
= gether.
:. The data required before the CLAIM
? can be recorded and leave the division
:, is, for an invalid claim. the full nam,
and address of the soldier, with tn,
= company, regiment and State from
: which he enlisted, also any other service
u he may have had. If a widows claim
the above facts are required and als'
= data regarding the pension, if any, tn
! soldier drew. This data is sometime
p. slow in coming into the record division
: claims lying for months before they Cal
= be recorded. In spite of this fact tn
division does an immense amount o
: work. Last year 1890 invalid appli
= cations, 10, 23S widows, and 90, 1876 in
!. crease applications were recorded.
The examination of the evidence t
! establish the claim is given to what
- known as the adjudicating divisions
- There are five of these-the Eastern
Middle, Western, Southern, and OIL
=, War and Navy. The work in each
!, the same, the field of their labors differ
- ing. The first four deal only with pen
= sioners of the late war. The Old Wa
and Navy Division handles claims Q
! sailors, of soldiers in the revolution
the war of 1912, Indian wars, the Mex
- lean War, and in all companies of tn
late war not enrolled in the regula